Gig review: Matilda Mann at Rough Trade

There’s something fairytale about Matilda Mann. A Brit school alumni, she graduated in 2018 armed with a hushed vocal style and a knack for the kind of playful lyricism lapped up by the emergent indie-Tok cohort: A winning set-up. Five EPs later and she has just released her first album Roxwell, named after the street she lived on as a child. The record takes us down the familiar indie-folk paths trodden by Mann’s previous work, drawing on close-mic’d acoustic guitar, adorned with washy string arrangements and warm electric. She is drenched in the tonal worlds of Big Thief and early Laura Marling, whom she has referenced as a long-time inspiration, but bears the badge of young alternative matriarch with a sound fresh in its Gen-Z revision.

This evening at Rough Trade Nottingham, the fourth venue on a five stop sing-and-sign record store tour, we are met with an even closer experience of Mann than her recorded work provides. Lacking the oft- double tracked vocals, Mann’s voice shines in its exposed and well-enunciated clarity on the tiny stage in the venue’s upstairs live area. She delivers each number solo on acoustic guitar, which she plays with a pleasing balance of melodic intention and relative looseness akin to folk’s Dylan/Mitchell heritage.

The stripped back set reveals the strength of her writing. Robust and engaging, her arrangement of Tell Me That I’m Wrong rides the caricatures of the current folk-pop sound with flourishes of interest which rescue her from mainstream mundanity. The popular track Paper Maché World exhibits the fluency with which Mann plays with narrative in her songs, and she performs accordingly, taking us through each moment not just musically but physically.

At the End of the Day, track one of Mann’s debut album, is built around glistening harmonies from multiple guitar parts, though in her live rendition she manages to capture much of the song’s spirit with just one instrument - the sign of a musician capable of commanding a room.

This evening the crowd is awkward and a little tense in a compact space, but Mann is easy and full of smiles, which lightens both the more melancholy tones in the setlist and the polite reserve of her onlookers.

Laughing interactions with her front row are a testament to the lightness with which Mann is able to convey the vulnerabilities of Roxwell’s endearing coming-of-age introspection.

While the intimacy of tranquil vocals suit this quiet bare-brick corner of Rough Trade Nottingham, the purity of Mann’s talent is too evident to remain confined to the grit of the underground scene. Bigger venues beckon in April, where she kicks off her biggest UK headline tour to date. It’s clear she is ready.

Matilda Mann performed at Rough Trade Nottingham on 5th March 2025.

@matildathemann